


Lyokostar 1: Story 1: X.A.N.A.'s Return

by WindySilver



Series: Lyokostar 1 [1]
Category: Code Lyoko
Genre: F/M, ah shit here we go again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:27:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24948415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindySilver/pseuds/WindySilver
Summary: X.A.N.A. returns and starts his new life with chaos. Into the middle of this chaos emerges a girl called Mary, whom X.A.N.A. already knows. The Lyoko Warriors return to the fight but how will they all fare when they give themselves up to new dangers to save both the Earth and their friends?
Relationships: Jeremie Belpois/Aelita Schaeffer, Yumi Ishiyama/Ulrich Stern
Series: Lyokostar 1 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805602
Collections: Lyokostar





	1. Message

It had been two months since closing the supercomputer and everything was peaceful at Kadic. Until Jeremy got a message.  
"What now?" Jeremy wondered as his laptop, which had been silent for two months but with him by habit, started to make a familiar noise.  
"Have you forgot to charge your laptop's battery, Einstein?" Odd asked, grinning. Jeremy ignored the question and watched the message he had opened with a frown.  
"Jeremy? Is something wrong?" Aelita asked.

Jeremy answered, "I got some weird message. It says: 'Did you think you'd get rid of me that easily? Soon I will possess William and reboot the supercomputer and escape to Lyoko. This time you will not defeat me and I will start to control the Earth! MUAHAHAHAA!!  
~Your dear archenemy X.A.N.A.'"  
"Has someone been at the factory, booted the supercomputer, gone through the files and sent the message to troll us?" Ulrich wondered.  
"Probably. I'll go to the factory to check the situation after school. I guess it's not worth it to get nervous from prank messages," Jeremy stated.  
"But what if it's not a joke and X.A.N.A. has actually returned?" Yumi asked, worried.  
"It's completely impossible, Yumi. We destroyed X.A.N.A. completely!" Jeremy answered in a rock-hard manner.  
"Yeah, and my father sacrificed himself so that X.A.N.A. would be destroyed. He wouldn't have done so if X.A.N.A. could have returned despite of everything," Aelita remarked.  
"Aelita is right. It's just some idiot who's behind this," Odd said.  
"But what if this idiot has unleashed X.A.N.A. even by accident? It could easily attack us when we wouldn't know about it," Yumi said. She had been the first who was ready to shut down the supercomputer, but now she was the only one who was worried about X.A.N.A.'s possible return.  
"Listen, what if we all would go and check the factory's situation out after school? Surely there has been nothing but an intruder messing," Jeremy suggested.  
"Let's hope you're right, Jeremy. I just managed to raise my grades to the level in which I could even become able to talk with my dad again," Ulrich noted.

William was close by and noticed that the group had suddenly become serious. He did know that he was not in the favor of the Lyoko Warriors, but he still decided to make sure that nothing was wrong. But just when he was approaching them, the bell rang.  
"Let's go. Worrying doesn't help anything," Aelita said. Yumi nodded and left to a different direction than her friends; she had a lesson on the other side of the school. William joined her.  
"Is everything all right?" William asked.  
"Yes," Yumi answered without knowing if she told the truth or not. She was not interested in having William to mix up this mess. A mess which may not even have been.  
"Okay," William answered and considered his words carefully. "I just thought I'd check, since you just were a bit... worried."

Yumi did not say anything. After William's xanafication, everyone had come to the conclusion that it did not pay off to tell him about Lyoko's affairs. It was better to keep him out of the whole thing.

Because if X.A.N.A. had truly returned, William would be an easy target if he walked around the factory's area. No one wanted the clone, let alone XanaWilliam, to cause trouble.

After school, the Lyoko Warriors headed to the factory and went to check the supercomputer. There was nothing out of ordinary. If someone had been there, they had shut down the computer and cleared their traces well.  
"There's nothing here. Let's go back. The message clearly was just a prank," Jeremy declared. Yumi sighed quietly in relief, just like everyone else. So, nothing had happened after all.


	2. Revelation

In the evening William was in his room, reading. After X.A.N.A. had been destroyed, Yumi and Ulrich had started dating and William had left to the background. He had not given up on Yumi, but he knew that the girl was more interested in Ulrich than him. Since then, he had started to familiarize himself with poetry on a teacher's advice.

William felt weird tingling somewhere deep in the back of his mind. He had felt it occasionally ever since he had been freed from X.A.N.A.'s possession. This time the tingling had an impatient tone.

A shadow moved on the edge of William's field of view. He raised his gaze to see what it was, but he saw nothing in the darkish room. The tingling intensified. It was as if someone inside his head had told something to hurry. William looked around but concluded that nothing in his own room could threaten him.

Now the shadow moved in front of him. This time William knew for sure that he had seen something.  
"Who's there?" he asked, looking around. No one answered nor moved but he knew that there was something very nearby. He got up without letting go of his book. In fact, he had already forgotten he was holding it. First, he thought that the tingling had fallen silent but then he realized it was only extremely subtle, downright joyful.

He wondered for a moment what that tingling was, but then the shadow arose and attacked. William did not have time to make a sound. The poetry book fell to the floor. The tingling burst into gleeful laughter.

Aelita wandered around the city. Everything at the factory had been just as they had left it two months ago, but Yumi's worry about something having happened after all had stuck. Even though Jeremy claimed stronger than bedrock that X.A.N.A. could not have returned even to the network, Aelita started to fear that he was wrong. That X.A.N.A. was out there somewhere somehow, waiting for his time to strike.

Aelita noticed that her feet had carried her to the factory. After making sure no one saw her, she went inside to make sure one more time that X.A.N.A. had not returned.

Yet again, she checked that there was nothing to be seen. There was nothing on Lyoko. Nothing that would have indicated that X.A.N.A. had returned. _X.A.N.A.'s gone and won't return. Believe it already, Aelita_ , Aelita scolded herself. She shut the supercomputer down and returned to the school. It was already quite late.

On the next day, school had a sports afternoon. Some stayed at school to play football, some went orienteering in the forest, some went walking. Then there were just the truants. Registrations had been held and the students were supposed to gather to the yard.  
"Hurry up, Odd, we'll be late!" Ulrich exclaimed.  
"Yeah, just a moment. Kiwi, get to the bag now, you'll get out soon!" Odd said. Kiwi finally agreed to go into the bad.  
"Come on, quickly!" Ulrich said and they hurried up to get out. Jim met them.  
"Ulrich and Odd, have you seen William today?" Jim asked.  
"No, we haven't," Ulrich answered. "What about that?"  
"He hasn't arrived, he's not in his room... No sign of where he'd be!" Jim answered. "Vanished into thin air! Well, seems like he's playing truant. And here I thought that he had changed his habit into better..."

Jim slogged away.  
"Should we investigate?" Odd asked.  
"Why? It's his business if he wants to skip! We're already late!" Ulrich remarked.  
"But he's really made an improvement! This isn't normal!" Odd stated.  
"Well, what can we do?" Ulrich asked.  
"Let's check his room," Odd answered and left without waiting for his friend. Ulrich shrugged and followed him.

A moment later:

"Well, there are no clues here," Ulrich blurted, impatient. "Let's go already."  
"Wait a moment! Look at this!" Odd said. "Hey, Kiwi, leave the book alone!" He crouched and lifted the book from the floor. "Whoa, since when has William read Baudelaire's poems?"  
"And how should I know?" Ulrich asked.  
Kiwi still sniffed the book and then left.  
"Kiwi! Get back!" Ulrich cried out.  
"It got a scent! Let's follow it!" Odd shouted.  
"What?" Ulrich cried. Odd went on and Ulrich could not let his friend go wherever Kiwi would lead him. Therefore, he followed Odd.

Ulrich's phone rang.  
"Yes, Yumi?" Ulrich answered.  
"Where are you lurking? Everyone else's leaving!" Yumi asked.  
"William's missing and Odd had to look for clues. Now we're after Kiwi! Sorry!" Ulrich told.  
"Ok, I'll say that you come after us," Yumi said.  
"Thanks! See you soon!" Ulrich answered and hung up. "Odd, slow down!"  
"I can't! Kiwi's fast!" Odd shouted back.

Kiwi stopped at the manhole.  
"Ulrich, do you think what I'm thinking?" Odd asked.  
"You mean that we're late?" Ulrich asked.  
"No, I mean that William has gone here," Odd noted.  
"Why would he have?" Ulrich asked.  
"I don't know. But I trust Kiwi's smell," Odd said.  
"Well, this could be something fishy. I'll call Jeremy just in case," Ulrich said and took his phone up again.  
"You do that. I'll go already," Odd said, put Kiwi to the bag and left to the sewers.  
"Hello? Jeremy, we may have a problem. Unless Kiwi's sense of smell is failing us, William may be at the factory," Ulrich reported.  
"Roger that, we'll come there," Jeremy replied.  
"We'll go already," Ulrich noted and hung up. Then he followed Odd to the sewers.

The others joined them at the bridge. Odd put Kiwi down and it ran to the factory, following the scent. The group followed. Kiwi led them to the elevator.  
"Why on earth would William come here?" Jeremy wondered.  
"No idea," Yumi answered. She had a hunch that William would have come to check the situation, but it did not feel like something he would do.

Everyone was astonished. The supercomputer was active!  
"It can't be! We shut it down!" Aelita cried out. Jeremy ran to the computer and opened the Holomap.  
"William is on Lyoko, under X.A.N.A.'s control! And he's fighting someone there!" he shouted.  
"Has X.A.N.A. really come back?!" Odd cried out.  
"No way!" Yumi shouted.


	3. A New Warrior

The sword and the steel-hard scales rammed against each other.  
"Give up, X.A.N.A.!" shouted the girl who used the scaly arms. "You can't beat me!"  
"We'll see about that!" the AI snarled through William.  
"We saw it last time! You did not win!" the girl shouted.  
"And now I have returned! Now I'll win!" X.A.N.A. roared and let William lean on his sword even more. The girl held on, watching the sparks which flung from the sword and the arms. The screech of the blade was furious.  
"What can we do?" Aelita asked.  
"I don't know! X.A.N.A. is behind this personally! I can't free William in any way!" Jeremy cried out. "I can't do anything!"  
"You can virtualize us! Jeremy, hurry up!" Yumi said and already rushed into the elevator. The others followed and Jeremy started typing familiar commands.

The girls went to the scanners first.  
"Transfer Yumi, transfer Aelita, scanner Yumi, scanner Aelita, virtualization!" Jeremy spouted out. The girls fell onto the surface of the Desert Sector and saw the fighting duo. William was gaining the upper hand as the girl's strength was fading.  
"Transfer Odd, transfer Ulrich, scanner Odd, scanner Ulrich, virtualization!" Jeremy spouted out again and Odd and Ulrich appeared into the scene.  
"Wow! Now that's a beautiful girl!" Odd shouted. "Let's go help her!"  
"No!" the girl shouted at them over the screech. "I'll deal with this myself!"  
"I almost got to say that you won't beat me alone but then you decide to abandon the help you need. What a pity, but at least you'll die a hero, Mary," XanaWilliam said with a silk-smooth but mocking voice. The girl called Mary gathered her strength and swung her arms and William's sword up. Then she struck William at his stomach and the Xanafied boy flew two meters away, hitting a boulder.  
"Whoa!" Odd exclaimed. He had noticed the girl's bulky hands but had not believed them to be such a powerhouse.  
"That's enough already! X.A.N.A., free William or I'll do it!" Mary growled.  
"Oh, so the ability you got as a perk has already recharged? Well go ahead, use it! To the end this time!" XanaWilliam provoked.  
"I know that that's just pathetic provocation," Mary said, gathering her power, "but unfortunately I don't seem to have any choices."

First, William smiled but then, all of a sudden, he realized that Mary was completely serious. He tried to escape.  
"Stop him! He mustn't escape!" Jeremy shouted. "This may be the only chance to save William! Here are the vehicles!"  
"Full speed ahead!" Ulrich shouted, jumping onto his Overbike, sped past William and cut in front of him so that he fell. Ulrich lost the control of the Overbike and jumped off before it was destroyed. Then he pushed his old rival to the ground with his foot. The others settled around them while Mary walked past them. William glared at them all.  
"Out of the way, Ulrich!" Mary said to Ulrich. The samurai Lyoko Warrior backed off a bit but stayed alert. William stood up faster than anyone had expected and Mary shot some kind of a cross of a lightning and a ball at him. William fell, this time knocked out by the impact.  
"Did it work?" Yumi asked.  
"It seems so," Jeremy said.  
"It had better work. I can't use my special ability for a couple of months," Mary puffed.  
"Einstein? Any ideas what we should do now?" Odd asked.  
"It may be for the best that you take him to a tower. It's too risky to materialize him before we know if he's free or not," Jeremy answered.  
"Fine, let's carry Handsome to the tower," Ulrich said and lifted William onto the Overboard with help from Odd.  
"There's a tower close by. Follow me," Mary said. She led the Lyoko Warriors to a way tower which was just a stone's throw away.  
"I'll execute the digital analysis. It'll give us some idea if William's still Xanafied or not," Jeremy informed.  
"Well at least he's unconscious for now. That'll be enough for now, right?" Ulrich remarked and looked at Mary. The girl did not say anything.  
"Who are you?" Aelita asked.  
"The name's Mary Wind. And I've been stuck here for too long," Mary introduced herself and sat down. "I probably wouldn't even remember what Earth looks like if I couldn't see something from here."  
"How did you even end up here?" Yumi asked.  
"Long story short: X.A.N.A. kidnapped me ages ago, tried to turn me into his servant, I took all I could from his combat training and took to the hills. And here I am: still alive despite of X.A.N.A.'s attempts to destroy me and rubbing elbows with the reborn AI again," Mary explained and looked at William shortly and bitterly. Why did that damned guy have to be so extremely stupid on his first Lyoko trip and end up Xanafied? she thought but did not say her thoughts aloud. She had never tended to say them. Not that anyone would have cared about them for any other reason than benefitting from them.  
"The analysis is finished. All traces of X.A.N.A. seem to have left William," Jeremy announced.  
"So, we'll wait that he wakes up?" Odd asked.  
"We can't. We have to return to the school," Jeremy said. "Mary, can you stay with him?"   
"Of course. It's not like I probably have anything better to do," Mary answered, shrugging.  
"Good, thanks. If anything happens, contact me. I'll keep my laptop with me," Jeremy told and started to materialize Lyoko Warriors. When the group had left the factory, Mary sighed and noted to the unconscious William, "Here we are, just the two of us. But now you won't kill me, eh? You don't even hear what I'm saying..."


	4. Attack

The school day had just ended and the Lyoko Warriors were leaving for the factory when William ran to them.  
"William? What's wrong?" Ulrich asked in a leery way. He, just like everyone else, knew that this could be a trap.  
"X.A.N.A. attacked... Mary's trapped... She sent me to get help..." William explained, panting; he had ran all the way from the factory to the school.  
"What happened on Lyoko? Why didn't you call right after being devirtualized?" Odd inquired. William took the remnants of his phone from his pocket and showed them, still trying to steady his breathing.  
"Some weird balls... destroyed the tower... Then came the Scyphozoa creature... Two of them... We were surrounded... Mary returned me back to the scanner... Told me to get help... said she'd hold on for long enough," he explained as briefly as possible.  
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Odd shouted and was the first to start running towards the park. The others followed.  
"You stay here at the school, just in case," Jeremy said and followed the others.  
"But..." William started but Jeremy was already gone. He sat down to the bench and decided to return to the factory when he would have managed to steady his breath. Somewhere deep inside he was angry because his conversation with Mary had been interrupted so cruelly. And now Mary was in trouble.

Some had noticed how the Lyoko Warriors had stormed away fast when William had run to them. And now Milly and Tamiya went towards William, hoping to get a scoop. After all, reporters had to be ready to act whether they worked for a big tabloid or a minor school newspaper.

William forced his breathing to steady and looked at the approaching reporters. They had caused enough harm to him already. Therefore, he headed towards the dormitory with hopes of losing the girls there and get to the sewers and factory via the school hall.  
"William! William! Do you have a moment?" Milly shouted to him. The reporters turned to follow him and William hastened his steps. Soon he ran the stairs up two steps at a time, trying to get as much distance as possible between himself and the girls.  
"William!" Milly shouted.  
"No time now!" William could not help shouting down and disappeared into the corridor.  
"He seems to be in a huge rush to run everywhere today," Tamiya noted.  
"Sherlock," Milly huffed, frustrated. Before, William had been the easiest to interview even though he had spoken a lot of nonsense, but now he could not be interviewed if he wasn't tied still.

William looked behind without seeing anyone following him. Triumphant, he headed to the corridor which led to the hall the fastest.

In the meantime, on Lyoko all forces had been unleashed: X.A.N.A. had brought an enormous arsenal after Mary had destroyed the Megatanks and made the Scyphozoa inoperative. The Lyoko Warriors had arrived and used all their abilities and weapons at full power. Mary had turned into a dragon to protect herself from some of the life point loss and to roast the monsters efficiently with her fire breaths. Yet there were still too many monsters. Yumi was devirtualized.  
"Mary, try to find a tower somewhere! You need to be materialized!" Jeremy shouted. Mary shouted that she could not locate a single tower in this mess but instead of that what came out of her mouth were a new surge of fire and roaring.  
"What's the situation?" Yumi asked after climbing to the lab.  
"A horseshoe, a rabbit paw and a four-lead clover would be useful for a change," Jeremy informed.  
"And William?"  
"I told him to stay at school."  
"Will he stay there?"  
"He didn't," came a voice when the elevator opened. William walked into the lab.  
"Why did you come back here?" Jeremy asked, amazed. He was surprised that William had fully recovered from his run this quickly.  
"I thought that it's better be here and try to help rather than be tortured by Milly and Tamiya," William blurted. "So, can I help you in any way?"  
"No, it seems. I can't virtualize anyone who's been devirtualized back to Lyoko in a couple of hours," Jeremy told. William nodded but his chagrin was visible on his face.  
"What about Mary?" he asked. The elevator opened again. Now Ulrich came.  
"It's not going well," he reported and noticed William. "Hey, what are you doing here?"  
"I came to see if I could help," William answered, trying to ignore Ulrich's hostile tone. Staying even-tempered became slowly harder as his frustration accumulated.  
"Jeremy, since you're probably having easier time there, could you help me look for that tower?" Mary shouted and roared a cry of pain when a Hornet shot her down.  
"Careful, Mary, your life points are at half!" Jeremy warned.  
"Stop staring at those life points and help!" Mary bellowed.  
"Uh, yeah, sure... Wait... The closest tower is 29 degrees to southwest," Jeremy told.  
"Which direction is southwest? I already lost my sense of orientation!" Mary shouted.  
"To the left," Jeremy answered.  
"Thank you!" Mary shouted and transformed back into her dragon form, breathed the last fires on the Crabs and turned to fly towards the tower. She did not make it there when a shockwave she had learned to call with the name Laser Air shot her down.  
"What? No, it can't be! William's here!" Ulrich shouted and turned to look at William only to see him turn into digital dust. "It was a clone!"  
"Mary, look out!" Yumi cried out into the microphone. Jeremy was about to tell Aelita and Odd to help Mary but then he saw that Odd had already been devirtualized and Aelita was being devirtualized just now.  
"Did Mary get to safety?" Odd asked; he had climbed the ladders up to the lab.  
"William's still on Lyoko and attacking her!" Jeremy answered. "And all the vehicles are unavailable! The rest is up to Mary herself."

Odd took a deep breath and tried not to panic. Mary fared against William last time as well and has survived when he's been Xanafied. Surely she'll fare, he assured himself. He descended a couple of steps and looked down to the scanners. Aelita had returned to the scanner more or less safely.  
"Mary, do you hear me?" Jeremy asked.  
"I don't have time to talk," Mary cried. "A clash with the meanie himself is about to start here!"


	5. Surprise Attack

"This time of peace between clearly hasn't had time to soften you, Mary. Should have stayed away for longer," X.A.N.A. taunted through William. Mary scoffed. She took up her dragon paws and loaded the Light Claw to its full power. She would need all the power she could put against that outrageously huge Zweihänder sword.

William attacked. Mary received the sword and let it pull her paws down. Suddenly she impaled the sword with the Light Claw and directed its momentum straight into the surface of the sector. The sword sank deep and William could not get it free anymore.  
"Oopsies, it seems your little sword became holed cheese!" Mary mocked and smacked William farther away from his weapon. She stayed to lean on its hilt just to irritate the Xana Warrior. Mary felt her head floating in the clouds and did not even think of her own skin.  
"You'll pay for that previous one," William growled.  
"Sorry, I don't happen to have money with me," Mary quipped.  
"Super Smoke!" William hissed, enraged, and headed behind Mary. The girl moved to the other side of the sword and started to walk backwards as William tried to get behind her.  
"Fireball!" Mary shouted and managed to strike a direct hit. However, it had no effect on William. Instead, he appeared out of the Super Smoke a second later, tackling Mary on her stomach to the ground and pushed onto the surface of the Desert with his leg. After that he called his sword back to his hand somewhat cumbersomely, ready to finish the girl off.  
"No!" Odd cried out. "Jeremy, can't you do anything?!"  
"No. Mary can't be materialized from the supercomputer right now by any other means than Code: Earth, which requires a tower. The closest tower is too far away!" Jeremy answered, distressed.  
"So she'll... be destroyed?" Yumi asked.  
"If she can't get out of that jam, yes," Jeremy answered crestfallenly. Odd let out a cry of rage; so, he would not get a girlfriend for sure in the near future after all.

William whacked his sword down but it flew aside alongside its user, as Mary turned back into a dragon all of a sudden, flinging her opponent haphazardly with the erratic change of size alone. Mary let a roar out of her mouth and slammed her jaws together right in front of William's face. The angry glare suggested the nearby end which came when Mary crushed William under one of her feet.  
"Ouch," Ulrich hissed as he watched the sudden plummet of William's life points. "That must have hurt."  
"What will happen to William now?" Aelita asked.  
"It seems that he's returning back to the network to X.A.N.A. It managed to hide its control from the digital analysis a few hours ago," Jeremy told.  
"Ability wasted," Mary scoffed.  
"Darn!" Yumi whizzed. William ending up back into X.A.N.A.'s hands was not a good thing at all.  
"Weeping doesn't help at the marketplace," Mary noted, shrugging. "I can just start to foot to the closest tower to regain my life points as well. I lost a fair amount of them."

Therefore, Mary left towards the tower on foot without keeping her weapons out. She trusted that X.A.N.A. had already given up for that day.


	6. Trap

William was trapped on Lyoko and under X.A.N.A.'s control. So was Mary who had, however, been able to keep her freedom. No one could be sure for how long she could keep her life, though. A week had already passed and the old familiar clone had taken the unfortunate beginner Lyoko Warrior's place at school again.  
"Jeremy, can't you make any updates to the clone?" Yumi asked. She was already on the verge of a nervous breakdown.  
"The latest update went wrong," Jeremy said and pursed his lips. "I'm trying to concentrate on freeing William with Aelita and Mary rather than improve the clone."  
"We've already found out that X.A.N.A. has neutralized my ability enough to render me unable to free anyone with it. Without Skidbladnir that old program isn't usable either," Mary told via the computer.  
"And even if it was, X.A.N.A. would have most likely created blocks for it," Aelita remarked. The school bell rang.  
"Let's talk more later," Jeremy said. Mary disconnected to let Einstein shut down his computer. She was not even interested in their mathematics lesson any more than usually. In other words, not at all.

Mary knew how to spend this day, too, on Lyoko: more calculations for the new program. Getting her out of the virtual world was not urgent, but getting William out was. No one wanted any more outside attention to the boy. Someone had already sincerely doubted his mental health based on the clone. The situation would turn into something very serious quickly, and William's parents were not needed to worry more anymore. The last time had been a very close call and none of the Lyoko Warriors wanted to repeat that episode.

Jeremy and Aelita tried to make their own calculations on paper every time they had time from writing notes. It was not easy but they managed to cobble some material together. It would be good to continue from that in the evening with Mary.

They would have spent even the lunch break for just calculations but the distress call sent with Mary's signal interrupted that. As the clone followed the situation, surprised, the group left mostly without drawing attention to themselves. And just like it had been programmed to do, the clone ignored it and returned back its "thoughts", which it, nonetheless, hardly had.  
"Mary, can you hear me? What's happening?" Jeremy asked, having arrived at the lab.  
"Let's just say that it's... a bit smoky here," Mary answered, sounding tense.  
"What?" Jeremy asked. He did not understand what Mary meant.  
"Just send that backup now... Then you'll understand," Mary muttered. The only part of her which moved was the mouth. She had given up other movements long ago. She could not do them. And most likely the views would not have changed anyway.  
"Mary is on the Ice Sector and seemingly in trouble. I'll send you as close to her as I can," Jeremy told. "Transfer, scanner and virtualize!"

First Ulrich, Odd and Yumi were virtualized. Then Aelita came.  
"What on Earth is that cloud?" Yumi wondered.  
"It nastily resembles William's black smoke," Aelita remarked, distressed by the sight.  
"You're close but I'll materialize your vehicles just in case. X.A.N.A. may use Mary as a bait," Jeremy warned. The three familiar vehicles appeared next to their riders.  
"Well, let's go! Fear not, Mary, the cavalry is arriving!" Odd said and sped ahead seemingly quietly. He stopped close to the cloud of smoke and waited for the others to come close to him.  
"Mary? Can you hear me?" he called into the cloud.  
"I do. But I really could use some help," Mary's voice came out muffled.  
"What happened?" Aelita sked.  
"William attacked from behind. Then I was here. I can't move. I'm stuck like a grasshopper in a glass jar," Mary answered. "Be careful. I don't know where he is."

Odd jumped off his Overboard and walked into the smoke cloud. Even though the cloud had seemed to be relatively small, inside it was surprisingly wide.  
"Jeremy? In which direction from my position is Mary? Jeremy?" Odd asked but he could not get a connection to Jeremy. He turned and looked around but the only thing he saw was that thick, dark smoke. He hardly saw even his own paws.  
"Am I imagining it or has Odd been there for even too long?" Ulrich wondered outside the smoke cloud.  
"I can't contact him. And it seems he has not been able to reach Mary or the other edges of the cloud," Jeremy told.  
"So he's got lost in there, is that it?" Ulrich asked and looked at the cloud, irritated. "Only Odd would get lost in a small place like that. I guess we have to go look for him."  
"Ulrich, wait!" Yumi cried out but Ulrich was already gone. Yumi's voice did not get through the smoke.  
"What do you think, Yumi? What should we do?" Aelita asked.  
"I lost contact with Ulrich too. He isn't even close to the edges and neither is Mary anymore," Jeremy told. Yumi threw her other fan to the smoke for a test. It did not make contact with anyone but it did not come back either.  
"So much for that good fan," Yumi scoffed.  
"Could it be some sort of a masked simulation bubble? It would explain why we can't reach Odd and Ulrich," Aelita suggested.  
"But how did Mary manage to contact us?" Jeremy asked.  
"Can she do that now?" Aelita asked.  
"Mary? Mary, can you hear me? Mary?" Jeremy asked. "No answer."  
"I'll try to break it with Creativity," Aelita said and put her hands against the edge of the smoke cloud. She whizzed in and could no longer find the edge she was looking for even though she was certain of the direction. Now she was lost among the smoke as well.  
"Aelita disappeared too, didn't she?" Yumi asked.  
"Yes," Jeremy said. "I'll try to figure it out from here. Don't make any contact with the smoke, just wait. I may need help from that side of the cloud."  
"Okay," Yumi said and sat down on the Overwing, having concluded that right now she could do nothing else than sit while waiting for Jeremy's news.


	7. Battle

Amongst the smoke, Mary tried to move again. Despite of Jeremy's talk, no one had come to help and even the connection had been cut out. Had X.A.N.A. kept the connection open just to get the Lyoko Warriors there into a trap and then disconnected it when it had filled its mission?

A figure approached. Mary tried to see who it was through the smoke, yet she could not make it out. But she did make out something whiter as the figure approached. Something white which was around where a human's head would be. Nothing else could be made out. That was when Mary figured it out: It was William. The black suit got lost into the smoke so efficiently it was not visible.

Suddenly William was so close that Mary could make out his face clearly.  
"What do you want from me?" Mary asked with a little choked voice. She was now even more helpless against that Xana Warrior than ever before. She could do absolutely nothing to defend herself from whatever X.A.N.A. had planned for her.

William smiled. It must have been supposed to be a calming, benevolent smile, but it was distorted into a malevolent one by either the poor visibility caused by the smoke or Mary's own mind which was paralyzed by fear. Mary tried to keep her breathing even but as the panic got stronger due to the presence of the dark boy, her breathing became increasingly shallow and intermittent. William stepped next to Mary and bent to whisper to her ear, "Why are you afraid, Mary? I'm not going to do you any harm."

Mary would have even believed that sentence for her own happiness but she felt how at the same time William put his hand on her shoulder and delicately found the edges of a deep and quite fresh scar. The scar was still quite sensitive and the touch sent strong sensations of pain from that area. Sensations of pain which Mary could not ignore.  
"What? Did it hurt, huh?" XanaWilliam asked with the same silk-smooth voice and pressed the scar's area a lot harder. Mary could not help crying out in pain. "What do you think of this, then?"

Mary felt the tears of pain coming up to her eyes and she had to use all her strength to not shout the order to stop. It would have only provoked XanaWilliam to continue that torture.  
"Do you want me to stop?" he asked. Mary barely managed to shake her head, wishing that the defiant expression – or what at least tried to be a defiant expression – would make X.A.N.A. stop. XanaWilliam laughed and retreated away, disappearing back into the smoke. Yet the laughter stayed to echo. Mary felt a bizarre urge to call that horrible Xana Warrior to come back, but she restrained herself from doing that and was silent, letting the shoulder's sensations of pain fade away slowly. She knew that XanaWilliam would return...

Aelita found the edge suddenly. She concentrated on Creativity immediately; after all, she had heard Mary's scream somewhere far behind her. She could only hope that Odd or Ulrich would find the girl and help her... Whatever X.A.N.A. was doing to her...

The wall broke on Aelita's will and the smoke cleared. What remained were XanaWilliam, who was surprisingly close to Mary, Odd and Ulrich, who were just as surprisingly close to each other, Aelita, who was in front of Yumi and Mary, who was still in the grasp of the black smoke.  
"Could somebody please help me?" Mary asked weakly. She had been inside the smoke cloud for so long that her eyes needed some time to recover and adjust to the brightness of the Ice Sector.

Yumi had already thrown her fan at the unsuspecting William. The black smoke disappeared and Ulrich dashed to face the Xana Warrior. Odd helped Mary back on her feet.  
"Look out, three Megatanks coming!" Jeremy warned.  
"Copy that, Jer-" Odd started but got devirtualized and ended his sentence in the scanner room, "-emy."

Ulrich turned his attention to the Megatanks and gave William a chance to finish him off. However, Aelita managed to stop it with her Energy Field in time to save her fellow from devirtualization. Ulrich concentrated on the Xana Warrior again and left the Megatanks for the girls.  
"Fireball!" Mary shouted and shot at a Megatank. It closed itself, though, and the fireball hit its metal shell uselessly. Yumi and Aelita tried to hit the monsters with their own weapons, too, but the efficient shooting of lasers forced them to concentrate on dodging more than aiming their attacks. William kept himself located so that he would not get hit by Megatanks but Ulrich was constantly in some degree of danger to get hit by a laser.

Yumi managed to destroy one Megatank and Mary and Aelita succeeded in destroying another one with teamwork. By this time, one had rolled aside and shot Ulrich, leaving William's hands and sword free for a new target. A Laser Air hit Aelita's back. The Megatank played it safe and shot at the girl even though she was already devirtualizing. Yumi managed to destroy the last Megatank but William was already on the move. Yumi did not have time to defend herself from the sudden threat despite of Mary's warning, and so Yumi returned to the factory as well.

Mary was alone against William once again. She took up her dragon paws and prepared to meet her opponent. The shoulder still protested and Mary could not help worrying if this would be her final battle. William approached, walking calmly. Mary raised her paws and prepared to hit him as soon as he came close enough.  
"Come on. Attack," Mary challenged with a quiet voice. XanaWilliam smiled his familiar evil smile and raised his sword. Mary released the charge of the Light Claw in a shockwave much like that of Laser Air's, which XanaWilliam blocked, nonetheless.  
"Mary, behind you!" Jeremy shouted as a familiar monster appeared on the Holomap. "The Scyphozoa!"

Mary turned to stop the approaching monster but as soon as she had turned, William had already caught her with his own hands. The Scyphozoa raised its tentacles to catch Mary, who screamed and tried to scratch William with her claws, hoping to deplete her captor's life points and escape. However, William was left with just a few life points and the Scyphozoa got Mary.  
"No! Mary, no!" Odd cried out. Jeremy typed some program on the supercomputer with hopes of being able to stop the Scyphozoa with a new, though untested, creation. Yet the supercomputer found a bug from it and refused to execute it.  
"What is the Scyphozoa even up to?" Ulrich asked.  
"Is it going to... take her life? Like back when it got the Keys to Lyoko from me," Aelita whispered.

As if as an answer, the Scyphozoa let Mary go. She fell to the ground and did not get up anymore.  
"Mary! Mary! Answer now! Please, say you aren't dead!" Odd shouted to the microphone. Nevertheless, the girl did not answer. XanaWilliam poked her with his sword, even hit the scar with the blunt side of the sword, but the girl did not react in any way.  
"NO!" Odd shouted. "It's not true! It's not!"  
"Victory!" William hissed. "Finally."

He turned to leave but looked Mary one more time. She had been resilient and given a rather good resistance despite of her cowardice which had guarded her life. She had fought in her own ways and terms until the end. But now it was over.

And now that it was over, XanaWilliam felt some kind of vexation somewhere inside. He had lost an opponent he had been able to torment. He had lost that joy forever.  
"It had to be done," XanaWilliam remarked but those words had been put to his mouth by X.A.N.A. He could not control them. The vexation was wiped out when the AI master erased it all. _New battles would come_ , it whispered to its general, _and then you must be on full working order..._


End file.
